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Mar 04, 2025 By Caleb Campbell

Austin-based indie singer/songwriter and producer Mobley returned earlier this year with news of his forthcoming debut album, We Do Not Fear Ruins, out on April 23rd. Mobley has been steadily sharing new releases for years now, but he began moving in a more conceptual direction in 2022 with the release of his EP Cry Havoc! His latest effort builds on that record’s sci-fi concept, shaping it into a stage for his expansive, ‘80s-tinged art rock. We Do Not Fear Ruins returns to Mobley’s central character, Jacob Creedmoor, this time leaping hundreds of years into the future, landing in the midst of a post-apocalyptic dystopia.

After sharing the record’s lead single, “Y’rGhost,” last year and accompanying the album announcement with another new single, “No Exit,” today, Mobley is back with another track, “Had To Be There,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Had To Be There” is the most propulsive of the album’s released singles, leaning into Mobley’s penchant for massive melodies. The track has the same kind of relentless drama, tempo, and charisma as Born In The USA-era Springsteen, and it is similarly soaked in glittering synth tones and sing-along hooks. Mobley cries out the chorus like he is tearing full-speed down the highway and the track culminates in a spotlit guitar solo before settling into a chorus of swelling harmonies. Lyrically, the track finds the record’s protagonist reflecting on themes of responsibility and growth: “I was on my own / Before I had to be there / But my time was all my own / Before I had to be there / Can you take me back away from here to where it is that I’m supposed to be / I am no the thing that once I was / I am not the thing I’ll be”

As Mobley explains, “This song finds Jacob torn between his love of the world he left behind, the strange freedom he found in losing it all, and his newfound sense of obligation to the community that’s taken him in and the orphaned child he’s come to see as his own. He’s grappling with the overwhelming anxiety of not knowing how to be (or even find) his authentic self and longing for the time before anyone depended on him.”

Check out the song and video below. We Do Not Fear Ruins is out on April 23rd via Last Gang Records.